1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a tamper-resistant enclosure for a watt-hour meter, and, more particularly, to such an enclosure having a fiber optic link together with a load management terminal for remotely discovering unauthorized access to the watt-hour meter.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Watt-hour meters are employed for billing registrations of the electric power consumed at the customer location. Typically, the meters are self-contained, detachable meter units including a removable, pluggable base assembly and a cup-shaped cover that is normally detachably mounted on the base assembly to form a watt-hour meter enclosure.
To increase the efficiency and lower the cost of supplying and distributing electric energy to thousands of individual customer of an electric utility company, load management terminals (LMT) have been provided for connection at each of the customer locations for providing reliable and low-cost communication links to the utility company. For a more complete understanding of a load management terminal, reference is made to U.S. Pat. No. 4,130,874. Suffice it to say, the LMT includes a communication receiver and transmitter for coupling the LMT with a central station through a communication link, such as provided by a power line communication system.
Heretofore, the prior art has not disclosed the employment of the LMT with security means for discovering any tampering or unauthorized access to the watt-hour meter housing for any reason whatsoever. One reason for that has been that the tamper-resistant devices of the prior art have been of a mechanical nature, rather than electrical or electronic.